Dr. Luke Has Subpoenaed Lady Gaga in His Ongoing Legal Battle With Kesha

In the long-running legal saga between pop star Kesha and her former producer, Dr. Luke ( Lukasz Gottwald), there have been more twists and turns than we can count. Though the 30-year-old is finally making strides in her career after a four-year-long hiatus, releasing a slew of new tunes including her latest, “Let Go,” her battle with Gottwald is far from over. His countersuit against the singer for defamation rages on, now attempting to call one very prominent witness to the stand: Miss Lady Gaga.

Gottwald’s attorneys have subpoenaed the Joanne crooner, who is just about to kick off a world tour, over what they believe could be pertinent information regarding Kesha’s accusations about their client.

In their statement to E!, Gottwald’s attorneys clarified, “Dr. Luke’s counsel served a subpoena on Lady Gaga because she has relevant information regarding, among other things, false statements about Dr. Luke made to her by Kesha. This motion has become necessary because Dr. Luke’s counsel has not been able to obtain, despite repeated request, a deposition date from Lady Gaga.”

The subpoena stems from a now-sealed text message exchange between Gaga and Kesha that was initially presented to the court back in December of 2016. At the time, Gottwald’s attorneys stated that they believed Kesha had, “initiated a text message conversation” with Lady Gaga, in which the “Praying”artist, “falsely asserted that Kesha and another female recording artist had both been raped [by Gottwald].”

Gottwald’s attorneys also attempted to subpoena Gaga for an oral testimony back in March, at which time the A Star Is Born actress reportedly insisted that her filming and touring schedule was too demanding, providing instead a four-page spreadsheet of the messages in question. The lawyers now argue that the text messages she provided were “redacted,” making them unusable.

According to their statements, they currently “seek to, and have the right to, cross-examine [Gaga] regarding the circumstances of her extensive relevant communications with Kesha, as well as regarding [Gaga]’s state of mind when she received the defamatory text messages from Kesha and issued public missives against [Luke] thereafter.”

Gaga’s team would disagree, however, responding to the subpoena with a statement of their own. “As Lady Gaga’s legal team will present to the court, she has provided all of the relevant information in her possession and is at most an ancillary witness in this process.” They also offered what they viewed as an ulterior motive for the subpoena, saying, “Dr. Luke’s team is attempting to manipulate the truth and draw press attention in their case by exaggerating Lady Gaga’s role and falsely accusing her of dodging reasonable requests.”

She also spoke out in support of Kesha around the time of her initial request for testimony, telling recently retired radio host Carson Daly, “I feel like she’s being very publicly shamed for something that happens in the music industry all the time, to women and men. I just want to stand by her side because I can’t watch another woman that went through what I’ve been through suffer.”